Public Service Innovators -- Here Comes the Sun: David Hochschild, MPP '99

David Hochschild, MPP '99, was determined to bring the sun to San Francisco. Last November he got his wish when voters approved a $100 million bond initiative to pay for solar panels, energy efficiency and wind turbines for public buildings in the city.

Hochschild quit his job as a special assistant to the Mayor where he was working on park and land-use issues to organize a grassroots campaign to bring solar power to the city. The measure, which moved from just an idea to approved legislation in less than 10 months, passed by 73%.

Solar energy - while renewable, clean and reliable - does not compete favorably cost-wise with fossil fuels. The native San Franciscan says the key to the ballot initiative was to develop some less expensive projects - such as wind power and energy efficiency -- and "bundle" them with the solar power projects, so that the cost of the overall project was favorable.

Initially, many critics thought the city was too foggy for solar energy. But Hochschild countered: "It was foggy thinking, not foggy weather. San Francisco gets 96% of the annual sunlight of Sacramento, the most solarized city in the country." Hochschild says the success of the initiative coincided with last summer's rolling blackouts due to the energy crisis.

Not content to stop there, Hochschild and a colleague at the Environmental Protection Agency formed a nonprofit - The Vote Solar Initiative. The three month-old organization's goal is to help export the San Francisco model to ten other cities. "Solar power is a mature technology stuck in an immature industry," says Hochschild. "Bulk investments by cities will help the industry move forward." So far, leaders in Portland, San Diego, and Honolulu have expressed interest in San Francisco's model.

First developed in the 1950s for satellites, solar energy has been steadily making its way into the marketplace. "Our goal long term," says Hochschild, "is to push renewables [energy] into the mainstream. We'd like coal and natural gas to be considered alternative." And with more and more usage, the cost decreases. "Every time the cumulative demand for solar energy doubles the cost goes down another 20%," Hochschild says.

Hochschild, who spent a summer at the Domestic Policy Council at the White House, originally thought he wanted to work on the federal level. After becoming disappointed by federal energy policies that he felt "denied rather than addressed" global warming, working on technologies like wind and solar power seemed like a "no brainer," he says. He quickly realized that he wanted to work in local government, where he could be closer to the impact of his work.

This summer he will see his efforts come to fruition: the city will be installing its first solar panels on the city's Mosconi Convention Center.


For more information go to Votesolar.org.